The McAllister Collection contains about 7,000 Civil War envelopes collected by John A. McAllister. Issued by stationers, printers, and publishers, the envelopes contain patriotic designs and slogans to promote support for the war. Predominately published in the Northern states between 1861 and 1862, a small number of envelopes with anti-Union designs printed in the Confederate states circulated as well. The designs depict portraits of historic and prominent military figures, military scenes, state seals, cartoons, Liberty, American eagles, flags, and other military and patriotic emblems.
Views of camps and battle scenes, with over 100 lithographs printed by the Philadelphia printer L.N. Rosenthal and New York firm Currier & Ives as well as a small number printed on textiles by Boston Chemical Printing Company.
Collecting cards showing the work of illustrator Henry Louis Stephens (1824-1882). The graphics evoke sentimentality, patriotism, and humor in the portrayal of the transformation of a slave to a soldier; the conscription of an anthropomorphic rabbit; the dynamics of international relations between the Union, Confederacy, Mexico and Europe.
